June IS, 1899. 



AMERICAiN BEE JOUKNAL 



375 



tion is poor. You have mentioned early honey-plants which 

 are valuable to build up on. but which can hardly yield sur- 

 plus, and late plants which will help fill up for winter, but 

 say nothing- of anything likely to give you a profitable crop. 

 except to mention that basswood is scarce. Very likely, 

 however, white clover is not lacking, and it is possible there 

 are other good honey-plants that you have not mentioned. 

 Please don't understand that those early honey-plants are 

 unimportant. They are exceedingly important, because by 

 their means your colonies can build up strong for the main 

 harvest from clover, and possibly from other plants. 



There is probably no foundation whatever for fear of 

 honey from laurel. Many a feast of honey I've had in boy- 

 hood upon hone^- gathered where mountain laurel abounds. 



To make a living from bee-keeping alone would be pos- 

 sible if you can live very economically, or if you could have 

 a specially favorable location. In most locations there is a 

 a possibility that the very first year might be one of entire 

 failure, and in many places the failures occur two or more 

 years in succession. 



If it is a possible thing, it would be wise for you to be- 

 gin right where you are on a small scale, still holding on to 

 your present position, and after a year or so of experience 

 with a small number of colonies (beginning with not more 

 than 10) you would be much better able to decide whether 

 it would be wise to adopt bee-keeping as a vocation. As an 

 avocation for a professional man it is a delightful thing, 

 and it is entirely in the range of possibilities that one may 

 stand the strain of professional life with the burden of bee- 

 keeping added better than without it. 



Very likely your best plan would be to begin working 

 for both comb and extracted honey ; then you could drop 

 one, or continue both. 



Better let the house-apiary alone till you have had some 

 experience. 



Altho you might have a wider experience by working 

 for a time in some other locality, the probability is that 

 your better plan would be to work right where you expect 

 to continue. Bee-keeping in one place may be quite differ- 

 ent from that in some other place. 



As a final word. I feel pretty safe in urging strongly 

 that you do >iot make any very serious investment at first, 

 and that you do not put yourself in position to depend en- 

 tirely upon bee-keeping until you have felt your way care- 

 fully, so managing that at any time you can give up the 

 bees without loss, until you have gained some knowledge 

 that may guide you to a wise answer to your own question. 



Light Wired-Foundation is announced as the latest 

 new thing, in Gleanings in Bee-Culture. A step farther 

 than was taken hy Capt. Hetherington and the Van Deu- 

 sens is to be taken, that is, a means of fastening the strands 

 of wire to top and bottom-bar, or to the end-bars. 



Diagnosing Foul Brood with a Microscope is consid- 

 ered by Prof. Cook impracticable for the average bee- 

 keeper. He says in Gleanings in Bee-Culture : 



" A good microscope could be had for from 20 to 30 dol- 

 lars — one that would bring out these germs ; but the skill 

 and dexterity required in manipulation and determination 

 would make it of little use to the average bee-keeper." 



Renewing Queens at Two Years of Age is earnestly 

 advised against by Herr Spuehler. In many cases a queen 

 will do excellent work when she is three or more years old. 

 and if she is doing good work when two years old the new 

 queen that takes her place may not prove a gain. So long 

 as a queen does good work, let her alone, leaving to the bees 

 the task of removing her. — Deutsche Bienenzucht. 



Narrow Sections, — Editor Hutchinson, of the Bee- 

 Keepers' Review, mentions using sections 1'; inches wide, 

 evidently not plain sections but with the usual inset, for he 

 used them without separators, and after using some 5.000 

 of them he likes them. He thinks there may be some ad- 

 vantage in having the combs built 1 '3 inches from center 



to center, for that is about what the bees favor when left to 

 their own sweet will ; the thin combs are filled and ^sealed 

 more quickly ; the combs are built straight and uniform ; 

 the combs are usually well attacht to the wood and not 

 rounded down and narrowed as in wider sections ; the at- 

 tachment to the wood beings about the same as with wider 

 sections, while the lesser weight makes less danger of 

 breaking out ; and, not least, he finds such sections very 

 salable. 



Does Foul Brood Wear Out? — Prof. Cook says in 

 Gleanings in Bee-Culture : 



•• I do not think that foul brood is very apt to leave au 

 apiary when once establisht. I have known several apiaries 

 in California entirely ruined by it. I would not say, how- 

 ever, that bees might not recover from this trouble, tho I 

 have always had my doubts. Some of the best bee-keepers 

 in California have assured me that they have known it to 

 be present, and afterward disappear." 



Bees Changing Worker-Eggs to Drone=Eggs.— Editor 



Simmins says in Bee-Chat that he has frequently seen cases 

 in which workers have changed worker-eggs so that they 

 produced drones. But he has doubts as to the ability of 

 workers to change drone-eggs so they will produce workers. 

 But. Mr. Simmins, if finding drones'in worker-cells is proof 

 of the first change, is not finding workers in drone-cells (a 

 thing which sometimes occurs) equally proof of the second 

 change ? But as yet we may be excused for being skeptical 

 as to either change. 



Introduction of Queens.— Here's the plan practiced by 

 J. A. Holmberg. given in the Canadian Bee Journal : 



"The old queen is caged and placed on the top of the 

 frames for two or three hours. Then she is destroyed and 

 the new queen is put in the same cage, which is placed in 

 the same place over the frames. After an hour she is re- 

 least, when she is accepted readily. The bees think she is 

 their old queen, now having the odor of the old one gath- 

 ered from the cage and her position over the bees. He says 

 the plan is a good one in his practice." 



Control of Queen-Fertilization is claimed to be secured 

 by J. A. Holmberg-, as reported in the Canadian Bee Journal : 



" He practices Doolittle's plan in rearing- queens. His 

 nuclei are supported, not only with nursing-bees but with a 

 good supply of drones. He removes the nucleus to his cel- 

 lar where he leaves it well supplied with honey for about 

 three days. He then, at 5:30 p.m., after all outside drones 

 have returned to the hives, bring-s out his nucleus, when the 

 virgin queen and drones will at once rush out for a flight 

 after their long confinement. After their return the queen 

 is examined and if she does not sliow evidence of having 

 met the drone, the operation is repeated and she is given 

 another chance at the same hour on the following day. 



Getting Bees Started in Sections.— Editor Hutchinson 

 savs, in the Bee-Keepers' Review, that when the flow of 

 honey starts suddenly with a rush there is no difficulty in 

 getting bees to work in sections with no special induce- 

 ment, but let the flow be light at first, gradually increasing, 

 and the probability is that some colonies — many, if light 

 Italians — will think of swarming- rather than beginning- 

 work in sections. In such case, " nothing will so quickly 

 and surely lure the bees into the sections as will nice empty 

 combs." He says two or three sections containing drawn 

 comb are enough to start the bees at work, but as he uses 

 no separators, the bees make better work if the whole of the 

 sections in the super contain combs. Some who use sepa- 

 rators succeed nicely with a single bait comb. 



Preventing After-Swarms. — G. M. Doolittle gives his 

 two favorite methods in Gleanings. If the swarm is to be 

 left on the old stand, it is hived on combs or on frames filled 

 with foundation in the old hive, the brood-combs all being- 

 put in a new hive on a new stand, if necessary some of the 

 bees being brusht off so that barely enough bees are left to 

 take care of the brood, the weather being considered. Next 

 morning one of these central combs is lifted out and a vir- 

 gin queen allowed to run o;; it. The bees at once destroy 

 all queen-cells. If the swarm is put on a new .stand, he 

 listens for piping the evening- of the 8th day, and if none is 

 heard he does not listen again till the evening of the 13th 

 day. If no piping is heard by the evening of the 17th day, 

 no swarm need be expected. Next morning after piping is 

 heard, every queen-cell is cut off. the bees being shaken off 

 each comb so that no cell mav be mist. 



